Student finalist

Mark Gidley, a finalist in the BDA / Dentsply Student Clinician Programme and winner of the second prize, explains how he became involved when planning the elective period of his dentistry degree, and wanted to research the relationship between Type 2 diabetes mellitus and periodontal disease. Before he could begin however, there was a great deal of groundwork to be done.

‘The plan was to undertake two research projects in parallel, to make sure there were enough results at the end of the five week period to be able to write a full project report. This was organised in collaboration with the University of Newcastle oral biology department and together we planned the projects to be carried out and investigated ways to fund the elective research project.

‘I applied to the Society for General Microbiology, which provides grants to enable medical and dental undergraduates to work on microbiological research projects during their elective periods. It was with their funding that the research could go ahead.’